In Service Soil Health Workshop, 2012

On December 6th, 2012 an “In Service Soil Health Workshop” was held at the NDSU, Langdon Research Extension Center. The objective of the workshop was to provide research based insight to NDSU Extension Agents, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Soil Conservation Districts and Farm Service Agency professionals, regarding soil health and other related concepts. Soil Health training is meant to address the burning questions these professionals receive from the farmers or landowners, then, to discuss the practicality of the management strategies. More than 80 individuals attended the workshop. Please contact Naeem Kalwar with any questions.

In the first presentation Chris Augustin, the Extension Area Specialist for Soil Health at the North Central Research Extension Center in Minot, explained the soil health concept along with the nature and causes of soil salinity and soil sodicity. Naeem Kalwar who is Chris’s counterpart at the Langdon Research Extension Center then explained the management strategies to overcome the soil salinity and sodicity problems and how to bring these acres back to productivity.

In the second presentation, Dr. Dave Franzen, the NDSU Soils Specialist at the State Level, gave the audience a deep insight regarding the differences between different soil sampling methods, how to accurately obtain soil samples representative of the defined area, sampling timings and testing methods used in the labs.

Ezra Aberle explained the results of salinity cover crop demonstrations in detail, which were planted at the Carrington Research Extension Center. Ezra is a Research Specialist at the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Service.

Ron Wiederholt discussed the cover crop research done in North Dakota, its economics and long term impacts on soil health. Ron is the Nutrient Management Specialist at the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Service.

After lunch Harun Cicek, who was representing the Manitoba team, shared the cover crop research done in Southern Manitoba and its long term impacts on the soil health with the enthusiastic audience. Harun is a Ph.D. student in the Plant Science Department, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. He was accompanied by John Heard, Crop Nutritional Specialist, and Marla Riekman, Land Management Specialist. John and Marla both work for Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiative.

One of the hot topics right now is to get the fields tiled in order to lower the water table levels to facilitate the leaching of excessive salts and sodium out of the plant root zone. There are, however, certain soil chemical properties landowners should be checking before committing to the investment in order to get the maximum output. Dr. Larry Cihacek who is the Associate Professor in the Department of Soil Science, NDSU, spoke at length about the important soil chemical properties crucial to the success of the tiling, its long term economics and soil sampling requirements.

Dr. Hans Kandel who is the Extension Agronomist for Crop Production, in the Plant Sciences Department, NDSU Fargo, summed up the workshop by explaining the negative effects of shallow water table levels on plant growth, role of tiling to lower down the water table depths and use of water control structures combined with tiling, especially in case of dry weather.